The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 17: Jacob Meets Esau (2024)

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Fr. Mike dives into the love Jacob has for God, and how this is shown when Jacob meets Esau. Today's readings are Genesis 33-34, Job 23-24, and Proverbs 3:13-18. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, I'm Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 17. Let's keep on going. And day 17, we'll be reading Genesis chapter 33 and 34, Job chapter 23 and 24, and Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 through 18. As always, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version,

Catholic edition of the Bible. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible you can get from Ascension. Speaking of Ascension, if you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, the reading plan that we're following this entire year, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. Again, that's ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can subscribe in your podcast app. You also can sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. That's all one word, all together, all caps or no caps, doesn't matter. Catholic Bible to 33777. Again, as I said, today we are reading from Genesis chapter 33 and chapter 34. As we heard yesterday, Jacob wrestled with the angel all night and his name was changed. His name was changed from Jacob to Israel, which marked something unique.

And it marks something we have never seen yet in the Bible. In this whole story of salvation, chapter 33 reveals something we have not yet seen. We've seen plenty of brokenness. We've never seen reconciliation. So here we start with Genesis chapter 33 and 34. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, about 400 men with him. And so he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids, and he put the maids with the children in the front,

then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. And when Esau raised his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you? Jacob said, The children whom God has graciously given your servant. Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last, Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met?

Jacob answered, To find favor in the sight of my Lord. But Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, No, I beg you. If I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand, for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God. With such favor have you received me. Accept, I beg you, my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I beg you my gift that is brought to you because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. Thus he urged him and he took it. Then Esau said, let us journey on our way and I will go before you. But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me.

And if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my Lord pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle which are before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my Lord in Seir. So Esau said, Let me leave with you some of the men who are with me. But he said, What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built himself a house and made booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Sukkoth.

And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan Aram. And he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan Aram. And he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money, the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. Then he erected an altar and called it El Elohe Israel. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her, and lay with her, and humbled her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the maiden, and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this maiden for

my wife. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had wrought folly in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. But Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. I beg you, give her to him in marriage. Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it. Shechem also said to her father

and to her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes. And whatever you say to me, I will give. Ask of me ever so much as marriage present and gift. And I will give according as you say to me, only give me the maiden to be my wife. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah, they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you, that you will become as we are, and every male of you will be circumcised. Then we will give you our daughters, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will take your daughters to ourselves and we will dwell with you and become one people.

But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone. Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city saying, these men are friendly with us. Let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for, behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters and marriage, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us, to become one people, that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their cattle, their property, and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with themised as they are circumcised? Will not their cattle, their property, and all

their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of his city hearkened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon, and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came upon the city unawares and killed all the males. They slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. And the sons of Jacob came upon the land and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all the little ones,

their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few. And if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household. But they said, Should he treat our sister as a harlot? Job chapter 23 and 24. Job replies. Then Job answered, Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would give heed to me. There an upright man could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left I seek him, but I cannot behold him. I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take.

but I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandments of his lips. I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth. But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him? What he desires, he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me, for I am hemmed in by darkness, and thick darkness covers my face. Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? Men remove landmarks, they seize flocks and pasture them,

they drive away the donkeys of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge, they thrust the poor off the road, and the poor of the earth all hide themselves, and behold, like donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their toil, seeking prey in the wilderness as food for their children. They gather their fodder in the desert, they go forth to their toil, seeking prey in the wilderness as food for their children. They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock for want of shelter. There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast and take and pledge the infant of the poor. They go about naked, without clothing, hungry, and carry off sheaves. Among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil. They tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst. From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help,

yet God pays no attention to their prayer. There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths. The murderer rises in the dark that he may kill the poor and the needy, and in the night he is as a thief. The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me. And he disguises his face. In the dark they dig through houses. By day they shut themselves up, for they do not know the light. For deep darkness is mourning to all of them, for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

You say, They are swiftly carried away upon the face of the waters. Their portion is cursed on the land. No treader turns toward their vineyards. Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters. They feed on the barren, childless woman and do no good to the widow, yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power. They rise up when they despair of life. He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways. They are exalted a little while, and then they are gone. They wither and fade like the mallow. They are cut off like the heads of the grain. If it is not so, who will prove me the liar

and show that there is nothing in what I say? Proverbs 3 verses 13 through 18 Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gets understanding. For the gain from it is better than gain from silver and its profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called happy.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for revealing your heart to us. And we thank you also that you have revealed to us that not only are you present when things are good, you are present when things are dark. That even as our friend Job complains and complains rightly in the midst of his suffering. You hear his complaint. You will answer, Lord, even though so often you are quiet.

You will answer us. And today you answer us by giving us your word, proclaiming to us through this incredible technology. And so we thank you and we praise your name. We praise your name that is revealed to us through the words of your Bible, through the words of your church. We thank you this day and every day. Please receive our thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Man, gosh, I don't know. We could talk about Job a little bit, but we will because we have a number of days more with Job. But it seems like almost, I don't want to say more of the same with Job, but this is an important kind of lesson. It is the same. Job continues to note that there are good people who die and there are bad people who seem to be rewarded. And the logic would say, no, no, no, no, no.

Good people are rewarded and bad people die. But Job points out that life isn't so straightforward. It isn't so clear cut. And he's trying to make sense of this. And so he's wrestling with the Lord. Yesterday, we saw Jacob wrestle with the Lord. This is what Job does. Jacob wrestled with the Lord one night. That was good. It was good that he did that. It was good that he engaged with the Lord. But here is Job, our friend Job, and maybe yourself too, in the midst of your suffering, the midst of your pain, your trial, you continue to wrestle with the Lord saying, it would seem to me that if you were

close, that if you cared, that if you are love, then you would deliver me from this pain. And yet we still find ourselves in the midst of suffering. We find ourselves in the midst of a broken world. It's one of the reasons why I'm just so moved by this story we heard today in Genesis chapter 33. In fact, in Jeff Kaven's book with Tim Gray, it's called Walking with God, Journey through the Bible. He says, he notes this. He says that when Jacob goes to meet Esau, right, he doesn't just go on his own. He doesn't just go with his family. He goes with big gifts

and goes with a lot of gifts that he gives to his brother Esau. And he points out that Jacob's life had been a life of theft, scheming, and deceit. But it's the love of God that blesses Jacob. And Jacob is different moving forward from this. We noticed that in chapter 34, that horrible chapter where Shechem has the rape of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob slash Israel, and how the brothers are taking vengeance on the people. And Jacob wants to deal fairly with them, and the sons of Jacob want to deal maybe vengefully, maybe justly. It's hard to tell in a difficult, lawless place like that. And yet at the same time, Jacob doesn't deceive. Even if Jacob is ultimately maybe going to capitulate and make a covenant with this, the family of the man who had raped his daughter, he doesn't want to do it by deception. Again,

brokenness, man, all the scripture shows this brokenness. And in scripture in this, does say that what happened to Dinah was evil, that in fact, the words were, it ought not to be done. That rarely happens when describing the stories of the fathers of the church, fathers and mothers of Israel, rarely are a person's actions ever described as evil, but rarely are they ever described as this ought not to be done. Obviously it was not the actions of the people of Israel, but it was the actions of the people of Shechem. Nonetheless, it was horrible. But it was preceded by something that was remarkable. Jacob brings a gift in Genesis chapter 33, verse 11. And the gift, and this is what Jeff Cavins points out,

the term for gift that Jacob offers his brother, that word for gift, that term for gift is literally the word blessing. That Jacob is returning the blessing to Esau. Remember, it was the blessing that he deceived their father out of. And this is what Jeff says. The portion of the blessing that relates to material prosperity

is now shared with Esau as an act of restoration. It's an act of restoration. And Jeff goes on to point out, for the first time in the story, there is hope that reconciliation and forgiveness can win the day. Because this is the first time

we see reconciliation. This is the first time Because this is the first time we see reconciliation. This is the first time in this entire broken story that we see mercy, that we see forgiveness, that we see reconciliation. We also, again, that was the end of chapter 33. We went right into the chapter 34, where we hear and see and encounter this incredible brokenness, this defilement, this abuse of an innocent girl, Dinah. Gosh, isn't this how life works so often? That there is blessings, there's unprecedented forgiveness,

never happened before, and then there's ugliness again the next day. And we don't know what to do. How do we respond to this ugliness? How do we respond to a blessing? I think part of it is we do what we do today. We keep moving forward. We keep moving forward. We identify what's good and we praise God for it. We name what is bad, what is evil, and then we do everything in our power to eradicate it, do everything in our power to get it out of our hearts first, and then out of our relationships, and then out of our civilization, our culture. But we first have to recognize that in my life, like Jacob and Esau, I need reconciliation. I need forgiveness. We have to reconcile. We realize that in my life, like Shechem and Dinah and these brothers of Dinah's, there are brokennesses. There are angers. There is a desire for vengeance. There's a need

for justice. And all those things reside in my heart. And I need to ask the Lord to do something about that. And what we do today, as we said, is we keep moving forward. We are on day 17 of this journey through the Bible. And we will not stop now. We don't stop when we encounter these difficult passages. We don't stop when we encounter this pain. We don't stop when we encounter these difficult passages. We don't stop when we encounter this pain. We don't stop when we encounter things we don't understand. We keep on moving forward because we know that God does write straight, but he writes straight with crooked lines. And God's will is going to triumph, but sometimes it seems like it has to triumph in spite of our brokenness.

Not because of any goodness that we bring to the story, but only because of the reality that he can redeem even the worst stories. You and I have broken stories, just like the broken story that we're reading for the next 300 and whatever it is days. You have broken stories. But because we're getting ourselves closer and closer to him,

even our broken story can be part of his story I'm so grateful that you're joining me for this journey and please know that I'm praying for you please be praying for me and please pray for each other because we need it

we are all in the midst of this together with reconciliation needing reconciliation with forgiveness and needing forgiveness so we praise God I'm praying for you as I said with reconciliation, needing reconciliation, with forgiveness, and needing forgiveness. So we praise God. I'm praying for you, as I said. And my name is Father Mike. See you tomorrow.